(5/14/02, 1 p.m. ET) -- Eminem insists that his new album, The Eminem Show, due out June 4 on Interscope/Aftermath/Shady Records, is not like his previous efforts, despite the style of the album's first single, "Without Me." The single is currently Number 43 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.
The artist, who appeared on Saturday Night Live on Saturday (May 11), recently spoke to LAUNCH about the song that disses Vice President Dick Cheney, Limp Bizkit, and Moby.
"The first single is no indication whatsoever how the record is going to sound. That's probably the most different-est song that's most like anything off my last album than what's on this entire album," he said.
However, the "Without Me" video does give an indication of the types of programs Eminem enjoyed watching as a kid. In addition to mimicking the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show, Eminem impersonates the Robin character from Batman, one of his favorite superhero programs. "Yeah, growing up, I was a big fan of the TV series of Batman. I was like Batman, Spiderman-ed out. Superman, super heroes growing up or whatever, was my thing for a minute as with any kid who grew up in the '70s, '80s," he says.
-- Billy Johnson Jr., Los Angeles
Posted by Jen on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 @ 06:03 p.m.
Few albums have been as closely guarded as Eminem's The Eminem Show.
No one at Interscope Records has a personal copy, and journalists who want to review it have to go to special listening sessions where representatives from the rapper's management deliver the disc, sit through the sessions and then take the record back to keep it out of enemy hands.
Despite such precautions, all 20 songs were leaked to the Internet by May 11, a full three weeks before the disc's release date. The tracks are available on various file-sharing services. Plus, bootleg vendors began selling the CD on the streets of New York for $5 this weekend.
"No one's happy about it, but it's very hard to prevent," an Interscope spokesperson said. "You do everything you can to stop it from happening and then you get scooped. But we got it down to three weeks, which is not as bad as the industry standard at this point."
He pointed out that Korn's Untouchables was leaked a full two months before its release date and 15 System of a Down tracks being considered for the band's next album found their way to the Internet last week. "It totally sucks, but it's relative," he said.
The last Eminem album, The Marshall Mathers LP, was leaked 11 days before it came out, but that was in May 2000 when Internet pirating was less pervasive. Today, platinum acts are lucky to even get their music to the record label before Net thieves nab it.
But if label employees, journalists and radio stations don't have the music, how does it wind up online? It's hard to tell for sure, but there are several theories. Since manufacturing plants are sent completed discs to be pressed months before release, many industry insiders believe plant employees are responsible for the leaks.
In other situations, the leaks seem to come directly from the recording studios, which explains how B-sides, demos and alternate takes get uploaded along with album tracks. One other theory is that the culprits are computer hackers who break into home and studio computers and rip the music files.
However it happens, one thing's clear — you can talk about better security and more high-tech copyright protection software till your tongue dries out, but for every protective measure taken there's someone working just as hard at the other end to break the code. For now at least, it looks like artists are going to have to bite the bullet and accept the inevitable.
"Our whole purpose is to get our music out to people and let them hear, and if that is the way it is going [to happen] then I have no problem with it," Korn frontman Jonathan Davis said. "You can't fight technology. You can't fight what is going to be going on. So you might as well join it."
Eminem tracks available for download:
"Curtains Up"
"White America"
"Business"
"Cleanin Out My Closet"
"Square Dance"
"The Kiss"
"Soldier"
"Say Goodbye Hollywood"
"Drips"
"Without Me"
"Paul Rosenberg"
"Sing for the Moment"
"Superman"
"Hailie's Song"
"Steve Berman"
"When the Music Stops"
"Say What You Will"
"'Till I Collapse"
"My Dad's Gone Crazy"
"Curtain's Close"
Posted by Jen on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 @ 05:51 p.m.
Britney Spears and 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake have put two months of estrangement behind them and rekindled their love, according to UK tabloids.
As worldpop previously reported, Justin ended their relationship several weeks ago, amid speculation that he had taken up with dancer friend, Jenna Dewan. However, it is believed he recently pleaded with popstrel Britney to take him back, with Spears readily agreeing.
The 'N Sync heartthrob has sent Britney love poems, roses and an expensive pendent as penance for dumping her, according to reports.
A friend of Britney's told the Sun: 'I think it is safe to say they are an item again after a hiccup in their relationship.'
Justin recently inadvertently revealed that Britney's virginal image was misleading, and that the couple had split because he didn't want to get married.
'A lot of things have been said about them individually since the split and it has been upsetting. They just want to meet up, spend a little quality time together and get on with what they do best - loving each other.'
Another Justin confident told the Mirror that, 'Justin was tired of being unattached. So he phoned Britney and said he'd made a mistake.'
'They've resolved to try to be more of a normal couple and not just a pair of packaged pop stars whose romance seems to be handled by publicists,' he added.
Britney was halfway through promoting her debut movie Crossroads when news of the split broke.
Posted by Jen on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 @ 05:47 p.m.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs says his relationship with Jennifer Lopez was under stress even before his trial on gun charges but he was surprised that she married so quickly after their breakup.
"Yeah, I was surprised," Combs told Newsweek in an interview in the issue on newsstands Monday. "I mean, I didn't know it was coming, but if getting married made her happy, then I'm happy she's married."
Combs was acquitted last year by a jury that found him and his bodyguard, Anthony "Wolf" Jones, innocent of gun possession and bribery charges. The charges stemmed from a Dec. 27, 1999 shooting in which three people were injured.
"There were problems in the relationship before the trial," he said. "Then, during the trial, we had to be apart a lot, which made it so easy to stray. I couldn't be at her door with flowers and cards. A relationship needs that or someone else will step in."
Lopez, the singer and actress, married dancer Cris Judd last September.
Combs spoke to Newsweek in Orlando, Fla. where he was opening for 'N Sync .
"We hang tight," he said of Justin Timberlake and company. "You see how they're in and out of my room and I'm in and out of their rooms? It's funny because we like the same things — the same music, the same artists, the same parties. It's all love around here."
Posted by Jen on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 @ 05:40 p.m.
TORONTO -- Juno-award-winning recording artist Glenn Lewis testified yesterday that he struck a bouncer in the face with a microphone out of fear because he was locked in a choke hold.
But bouncer Young-Ho Hwang told court Lewis maimed him with the mike when he was trying to pull the singer off a pile of security guards who were evicting Lewis' friends.
About the only thing they agreed upon was that it all started over a hat.
Lewis, 29, whose real name is Glen Ricketts, pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault and assault with a weapon arising from the Dec. 5, 1998 incident after his show at the Guvernment nightclub.
In April, Lewis won the best R&B/soul recording Juno for Don't You Forget It, and he has been compared vocally to Stevie Wonder.
Lewis, who will soon tour with Tweet, said that he acted in self defence. He testified he was going upstairs to get paid after his act when a bouncer told him to "lose the hat." The club bans hats.
TRADEMARK BLACK CAP
Lewis said he tried to explain to security that he was given special permission to wear his trademark black cap, but bouncer Krzysztof Lemanski wouldn't listen.
Lewis said his friend Richard Coombs intervened and more security arrived to take Coombs away.
"I felt someone come from behind and throw me in a choke hold ... I was scared and panicked," Lewis testified. "I was trying to indicate I can't breathe ... I went like this to get the person off" indicating a backwards jab over his shoulder.
He said he was beaten, though he didn't see who attacked him, and was taken to hospital where he was arrested for assaulting Hwang.
Hwang testified the situation had calmed but Lewis' friends got belligerent so he ordered their eviction. He said Lewis suddenly "jumped on top of the whole pile" swinging his arms. Hwang said he grabbed Lewis but Lewis hit him in the face more than three times.
Posted by Jen on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 @ 05:32 p.m.
Diane Haughton and Michael Haughton, the parents of the late R&B singer Aaliyah, are suing a variety of entities, including Virgin Records and video director Hype Williams, for wrongful death, survival damages, and breach of contract.
The suit, filed Tuesday (May 13) in Los Angeles Superior Court, is basically against individuals and companies involved in the filming of Aaliyah's video "Rock the Boat" in Miami and Abaco Island, Bahamas in August 2001. The singer died in a plane crash while traveling from the Bahamas to Florida after the shoot wrapped (allstar, Aug. 27, 2001). Her plane exceeded the weigh limit, which caused the fatal crash (allstar, Sept. 10, 2001).
The Haughtons claim that defendants Blackhawk International Airways, owner Gilbert Chacon, Skystream, and Atlantic Flight Group were negligent and failed to "properly operate and maintain the subject aircraft with due care and caution," among other reasons, according to the suit.
"Each of the defendants willfully, wantonly, recklessly, maliciously, and despicably chose not to properly or adequately select, train, or employ a qualified pilot and aircraft for the subject flight despite defendants' knowledge that operation of the subject aircraft by an inexperienced and unqualified pilot and the selection and use of an inappropriate aircraft for the charter flight could and would result in a crash," states the suit.
Virgin Records, Instinct Productions, and Williams are named in the suit because, according to the filing, they were responsible for making "all travel arrangements related to the filming and production of the subject video, including travel arrangements related to the subject flight" and "owed a duty to decedent Aaliyah Dana Haughton to use reasonable care in selecting the mode of transportation" for the shoot.
Also named as defendants are A Few Miles North Productions, AG Multimedia Ltd. (d.b.a. Arnell Group), Omnicom Group, and Brent O. Coert. The Haughtons are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial.
-- Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna
Posted by Jen on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 @ 05:28 p.m.
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